And On To Europe

Ferguson:

'I think it would be without question an incentive in a way, but more than that it would be a great tribute from the present-day players to the players of the past.

'Because they won the cup in '68 and the Munich thing happened in '58. That was 50 years ago now and that's a long time, and it would be very fitting if we did it. Hopefully it gives an extra incentive and hopefully it will bring us some luck as well.

'I think it is better than the World Cup now and has been for some time. The Champions League gets better each year, whereas World Cups are not what they used to be. You have to go back to 1986 in Mexico [when he was last involved] to get a real sense of what World Cups used to be like. Or the one before that, in Spain. France and Brazil were both knocked out by the semi-finals that year, that shows how high the standard was. They were two of the best teams ever.

'You need a little bit in terms of who you've got on the Saturday before your Tuesday night game, or in domestic terms who you play on the Saturday after a Wednesday. The Premier League is so competitive you can't ease up for a minute and it can be difficult picking your teams if you are going for the league as well as Europe. You need a strong squad and we didn't have that last year, or at least not when we needed it.

'There has been an English team in the last three finals. We are getting some consistency from English clubs in Europe now. The recent record suggests English clubs will get to the later stages, and once you do that there is always the chance of reaching the final or even winning it.

'Two European Cups over the history of the Premiership is not a lot, but there are reasons for that and the balance has been between Milan and Madrid anyway. But the Premier League has improved, the quality of players in England has improved and, although English clubs have no divine right to succeed we have a better chance of consistency in Europe now.'

Referring to defeat in Milan last season:

'If we could start our team talk again it might have been different because we didn't expect them to come at us like they did.

'Even if they had they would have rested four or five players, because they weren't going for the title and in Italy and Spain they see the European competition as the bigger prize.

'We can't look at it that way though. There's no way in a tight championship race I could have afforded to rest players against Everton.'

The Observer:

Manchester United won their last European Cup on Sir Matt Busby's birthday and, as next year will be the fiftieth anniversary of the Munich tragedy, the team will feel the weight of history again as they try to reach the Champions League final in Moscow.

The trail begins in Lisbon on Wednesday with an opening game against Sporting, with fixtures against Kiev and Roma in a potentially tricky Group F still to come. Sir Alex Ferguson agrees winning a third European title would be a fitting tribute 'from the present-day players to the players of the past', though points out that in another sense, United's pioneering efforts and Busby's pan-European vision already have their just reward. The Champions League, born out of the European competition Busby tirelessly fostered, is now the world's biggest and best football tournament.

The Indie:

United set off for Portugal this week to meet Sporting Lisbon in Wednesday's opening group match with the manager admitting that the 50th anniversary season of the Munich air disaster would be a perfect time to achieve it. "I think it would be without question an incentive in a way, but more than that it would be a great tribute from the present-day players to the players of the past," he said. "Because they won the cup in '68 and the Munich thing happened in '58. That was 50 years ago now and that's a long time, and it would be very fitting if we did it. Hopefully it gives an extra incentive and hopefully it will bring us some luck as well."

Alas, these things cannot be done to order. What could have been more fitting for a proud son of the Clydeside shipyards than to have led United to victory in the Glasgow final of 2002? Being drawn against the unfancied Bayer Leverkusen in the last four led some United supporters to book their hotels for the final. The football gods, however, do not approve of such presumption; Leverkusen went through on away goals after two draws.

There have been two other losing semi-finals in the Ferguson era. In 1997, two years before the epic triumph over Bayern Munich in Barcelona, there were home-and-away defeats to another German side, Borussia Dortmund, by a deflected goal in each leg. Then, as recently as last season, Milan lost 3-2 at Old Trafford but ran out easy 3-0 winners in the San Siro rain.